State to cut jobless’ checks

Published: Saturday, June 22, 2013 at 08:57 PM.

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Margaret Fisher can be reached at 252-559-1082 or Margaret.Fisher@Kinston.com. Follow her on Twitter @MargaretFishr.

For anyone with a criminal record, finding a job may be more difficult than usual. Here are some tips that may increase the chances of landing a job. 1. If your record has mistakes and/or incorrect charges, contact your local Division of Criminal Justice to get a copy, or call the Legal Action Center at 212-243-1313. You can also seal your records so that only the criminal charges will appear. 2. If you have gone through a rehabilitation program, ask the clinic director to write you a letter of support. Ask the house manager, if you were living in a halfway house. It shows you’re putting forth effort. 3. Sell yourself as a person, not a criminal. Explain why you had trouble, how you have changed and what you learned from your mistakes. Bring letters of recommendation. Explain why you want the job, look the employer in the eye and speak frankly and clearly and be honest. Dress for success. 4. To find a job, contact:  Goodwill — Visit them online, or go into any Goodwill center  Department of Justice — The re-entry pages for prisoners lists agencies that can help you find a job, state by state and explain how your employer can get a tax break for hiring you  National Hire Network — The website has a list of employers with links that you can show your employer, detailing how to get a tax refund for hiring ex-cons  Prison Talk — A forum for ex-cons. Network with them to find job opportunities. Source: The Beehive — North Carolina

Marcella McClarin of Albertson would take just about any job — if she could land one.
“I’m basically looking for anything to pay the bills,” she said.
McClarin had been raising her son while her husband worked full-time. But with bills escalating, it’s time for her to bring in a paycheck.
“It’s been a struggle,” she said. “It really has.”
It appears, at least for now, the state will be cutting all four tiers of the federal unemployment insurance extensions, under the Emergency Unemployment Compensation Program, after June 30.
It’s neither good news for those who are about to lose those benefits nor those who are currently looking for a job.
The numbers of people who are receiving unemployment extensions are about 474 in Lenoir County, 125 in Greene County and 54 in Jones County, said Larry Parker, a spokesman for the Division of Employment Security in Raleigh.
Jamie Wallace, the manager of the Division of Workforce Solutions in Kinston, said he hopes the state will step in and make a change, but his office is preparing for the worst.
“I’m expecting we’re probably going to have a lot more traffic than there has been,” he said.
It could also increase the traffic at area food pantries and other charitable agencies, such as ICOR, or Inter Church Outreach.
Many people who are getting assistance from ICOR are using their unemployment checks to get by until they find a job, Director Marilyn Patrick said.
“I think it’s going to be critical,” she said, “because we have lots of people who are receiving unemployment.”
It may create a greater need for donations, as well as a need to solicit for more donations, Patrick said.
On a slightly brighter side, statewide unemployment numbers have been creeping downward, dropping to 8.9 percent in April. Local county rates were 9.2 percent in Lenoir, 8.9 percent in Jones and 9.8 percent in Greene — all lower than the previous month and year, except Greene.
Corporations like Smithfield Foods, Masterbrand and Electrolux have been seeing success, said Mike Pope, Lenoir County economic developer.
“It seems like we’re heading in the right direction,” he said.
“I don’t know how it will affect (Lenoir),” Pope said about the deadline. “I know it will affect us in some way.”
He said partnering with Golden LEAF, the N.C. Rural Center and the Department of Commerce Utility Fund has helped the expansion of companies such as Sanderson Farms, West and Spirit AeroSystems.
“We’ll do the best we can and keep fighting,” Pope said, “keep recruiting and try to get jobs here.”

Struggling to find a job

McClarin, who was waiting in Kinston’s Division of Workforce Solutions office, found temporary work recently, but that ended. She has worked as a cook and housekeeper, but said it’s not worth working for minimum wage.
“Either they’re not hiring or the pay is not enough to drive a certain distance,” she said. “I mean, $7.25 is not enough for me to drive.” Not when she has to pay for daycare and gas, she added.
So the 42-year-old juggles her bills around each month and ends up making phone calls to explain when she will pay her rent and utilities.
“People really think a lot of people are not out there searching,” she said, “but they are. It’s just hard to get.”
It may be harder for people moving into the area.
Jennifer Brown, 32, moved to Kinston from Atlanta for a change of pace after finishing school. She earned a degree as an X-ray technologist and later specialized in mammography.
Starting school in 2007, her career field was wide open. However, when the economy took a nosedive in 2008, students flocked into community colleges to earn certifications in programs like the one in which she was enrolled.
Fortunately for Brown, she is living with relatives. By the time she arrived in Kinston earlier this year, jobs in her field were fairly scarce.
“It’s hard for me as an outsider to get a job,” she said. “Once people get there, they kind of stay awhile.”
James Haddock, 41, of La Grange, has been job searching for about two months and is skilled in a variety of jobs. He shares living expenses with his brother and takes on small floor cleaning jobs to get by, but they are sporadic.
“I’m pulling my part, but it’s still tight,” he said.
He lost a job at Smithfield because of a lack of transportation. A week and half later, he got transportation, but he said he’s having to wait a year before he can possibly be employed there again. Visiting the Workforce Solutions office, he said he checks for full-time, permanent jobs online.
Terrell Reid, 26, just moved to Kinston from New Jersey. Wearing a dress shirt and tie, he carried his typed resume into the Workforce Solutions office and sat at a computer to search for jobs. A former assistant manager, he appeared confident he would find a job.
“A lot of stuff is in the field that I’m in,” he said.

Jobs are out there

Some employers are nearly always looking for workers.
Sanderson generally has a weekly turnover, said Mike Cockrell, the company’s chief financial officer.
“We employ a little over 1,200 people at the plant in Kinston,” he said. “Every week we have to replace people.”
About 10-15 percent of the employee population turns over frequently, especially when the unemployment rate drops, he said.
“We get anywhere from 20-25 (applications) a week,” Cockrell said, “though we don’t always have that many slots available.”
With a day and evening shift, most of the openings occur in the second shift, he said.
Sanderson opened in 2011 and began full production last year — despite the economic downturn that started in 2008.
Entry-level pay starts above minimum wage, making it attractive to many job seekers. But the assembly-line job requires moving quickly while standing for extended periods of time, so it isn’t for everyone, Cockrell said.
Some places are always looking for good staff, but getting employees to stay on part-time status is difficult. Such is the case for certified nursing assistants and personal care assistants.
Susan Rodwell, a registered nurse and in-home aid supervisor at Home Life Care on Vernon Ave, said the turnover is constant.
“It’s not usually full-time, per se,” she said is the reason for the turnover. “We always have staffing issues, especially on the weekends.”
But a few employees are able to secure two or three jobs that end up being full-time hours, she said. Others prefer the part-time hours.
The work is available, and some in-home care is state-mandated, requiring certified aids seven days a week. Home Life Care will assist their PCAs with study materials so they can become certified, Rodwell said.
For small businesses, there may be plenty of applicants, but finding the right employee is tricky.
Judy B. Johnson is owner of Living Well Down East, a health food store in the downtown. She took her hiring sign down a couple of weeks ago when the applications started coming in — about a dozen.
After more than three years in the business, Johnson’s learned how to keep the number of applications down to a reasonable number by informing potential applicants that the job isn’t as simple as some may believe it to be. She does so by handing out the job description with the application.
“I feel like it’s hard to find good applicants,” she said.
Johnson had put the sign out to hire one person, but then lost two employees. So she ended up hiring three people. She said she figures each has an asset to offer, so between the three, she hopes to cover all the business needs.
“I take our customer service very seriously,” she said, “so I look for individuals that understand and assume responsibility for being customer service-oriented as a priority.”
Then she looks for people who have knowledge of health products, or at least live a healthy lifestyle or have an interest in it and are pro-active. Hiring and training is a time-consuming endeavor, she said.
“I often hired people that shop here,” she said. “It seems to be a good fit for people who have retired from their profession.”
It’s part-time work without benefits. As a small business owner, Johnson said she couldn’t afford to pay for benefits. She hopes that will change at some point.

Becoming job-ready

More job opportunities in the area are a long-term solution, but potential employees need to be ready.
Pope said he’s particularly focused on recruiting suppliers for Spirit, and there are several companies with cash “ready to move forward.”
The key, he said, is having a trained employable pool ready for the potential industries, as well as training starting at the junior high level and including displaced workers.
The job market is changing from factory work to technically-advanced positions, Wallace said.
“A lot of people that are out of work,” he said, “are going to need to be retrained to go into new fields.”
There was a loss of 8,000 jobs from the textile industry, Pope said. But the potential career fields now include aerospace, food processing, pharmaceutical, the housing industry, biotechnology and robotics.
“People have to be proactive and reactive,” he said.
The Workforce Solutions office provides free computer access, help with resumes and job searching and career guidance assessments, as well as training at Lenoir Community College, Wallace said.
“A ramp-up of education is what we’ll have to provide,” he said.
His office visits employers in the county to try to secure orders for job openings, he said. The services are free, but many employers don’t know that, he added.
Job seekers can become certified in three levels of career readiness — certification that is required by certain types of employers. Being retrained gives a person “a leg up,” Wallace said.
He dispelled the theory that it’s easier to get a job when a person has a job. Getting a job is about having a good resume and being able to speak with the employer, he said.
Brown said she spends full-time searching online, making cold calls to businesses not necessarily in her field and filling out applications — a tedious job in itself.
“Networking is the biggest thing to me,” she said.
Brown makes it a practice to ask people for ideas about job locations and who to contact, but said most business people haven’t been helpful. But recently, she found one woman at a bank who has been a welcomed source of assistance.
“When I meet someone with a human touch,” she said, “it makes a difference. I can understand it’s routine (for them), … but for us (job seekers), it’s not a routine thing. So basically, it can get discouraging very easily.”
Brown said she would like to get her foot in the door where she can eventually move into her career choice, but is at the point of taking any job now.
“I kind of think with just the different contacts I’ve made,” she said, “and the different people I’ve met, there is some hope.”

Margaret Fisher can be reached at 252-559-1082 or Margaret.Fisher@Kinston.com. Follow her on Twitter @MargaretFishr.

For anyone with a criminal record, finding a job may be more difficult than usual. Here are some tips that may increase the chances of landing a job.
1. If your record has mistakes and/or incorrect charges, contact your local Division of Criminal Justice to get a copy, or call the Legal Action Center at 212-243-1313. You can also seal your records so that only the criminal charges will appear.
2. If you have gone through a rehabilitation program, ask the clinic director to write you a letter of support. Ask the house manager, if you were living in a halfway house. It shows you’re putting forth effort.
3. Sell yourself as a person, not a criminal. Explain why you had trouble, how you have changed and what you learned from your mistakes. Bring letters of recommendation. Explain why you want the job, look the employer in the eye and speak frankly and clearly and be honest. Dress for success.
4. To find a job, contact:
 Goodwill — Visit them online, or go into any Goodwill center
 Department of Justice — The re-entry pages for prisoners lists agencies that can help you find a job, state by state and explain how your employer can get a tax break for hiring you
 National Hire Network — The website has a list of employers with links that you can show your employer, detailing how to get a tax refund for hiring ex-cons
 Prison Talk — A forum for ex-cons. Network with them to find job opportunities.
Source: The Beehive — North Carolina